Recent advances in electronic technology have lead to the development of a series of entirely new musical instruments. Electronic organs, music synthesizers, digital sampling machines and drum machines, are but a few members of the new generation of electronic musical instruments. Although tremendous advances have occured in the sounds that can be generated with these new instruments, very few advances have occured in the interface between the human musician and the electronic musical instrument.
The most common interface between the electronic musical instrument and the human musician is based upon the piano keyboard. Some drum machines allow triggering to be performed in the traditional manner, by striking a sensor plate with a stick to generate a trigger signal which causes the drum machine to generate drum-like sounds. While these methods of the prior art achieve their goal of allowing an electronic musical instrument to be triggered, they do not always provide the flexibility which the musician may require. Accordingly, there is a need for a new light weight non-keyboard based apparatus for generating electronic musical instrument control signals with which an electronic musical instrument may be controlled. Accordingly, a control apparatus for an electronic musical instrument which provides a new control interface for electronic musical instruments would be desirable.